"The court has raised an issue on the numbers ofparticipants and asked the commission to clarify thenumbers."

Breandan MacCionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy RoadResidents Coalition, said the court had "vindicated thecriticisms we made".

"Hopefully, now that the commission has been ordered by thecourt to look again at the issue we will now see commonsense restrictions being put on the parade with the resultthat tensions will be defused over the weekend," he said.

Serious violence

Each July, the Portadown Orange Lodge attends a service atDrumcree church to commemorate the anniversary of theBattle of the Somme.

Since 1998, their homeward route has been blocked by thesecurity forces, following a determination by the ParadesCommission.

The parade has been marked by serious violence in the past,but it has passed off peacefully in the last three years.

The march has been one of Northern Ireland's mostcontentious. The route was last used by Orangemen in 1997.

The Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisionson whether controversial parades should be restricted.

The Orange Institution is the largest loyal order inNorthern Ireland.

Its origins date from the 17th century battle for supremacybetween Protestantism and Catholicism. Prince William ofOrange, originally of the Netherlands, led the fightagainst Catholic King James.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams is on the third day of avisit to the USA. Since his arrival he has attended a smallreception for Heads of State and Foreign dignitariesattending the Clinton Global Initiative event and addressedthe prestigious New York based Council on ForeignRelations.

Mr. Adams provided the Council with an update on thecurrent state of the peace process in Ireland.

He said:

"The key to stability and progress in any peace process isthe guarantee that the status quo, which led to theconflict, is changing and that discriminatory andrepressive policies used in the past are being abandonedand replaced by a rights based inclusive dispensation basedon equality..

"Unionist political leaders have demonstrated time aftertime a predisposition toward diluting, minimizing and ifpossible stopping change. All of us have a duty to persuadeunionism that the peace process and inclusive arrangementsbetween the parties is the only road which can lead to abetter future. The principle responsibility for advancingthe rights and entitlements of citizens contained in theGood Friday Agreement lies with the two governments. Andthese cannot be vetoed by the DUP.

Next months discussions are not therefore about a choicebetween Plan A - the restoration of the institutions andthe implementation of the Agreement - and Plan B - the twogovernments agreeing new partnership arrangements toimplement human rights, justice, economic, and policingarrangements. What is required is a clear commitment fromthe two government that they are determined to move aheadwhatever happens with a continuous, seamless process ofchange." ENDS

It was not a question of whether or not the powersharingexecutive in the North would be re-established, but when itwould be re-established, Mr Adams told an audience ofdiplomats and politicians at the Council on ForeignRelations in Manhattan yesterday.

Among those present were former US ambassador to Ireland,Jean Kennedy Smith; former mayor of New York David Dinkins;former Clinton administration official, Nancy Soderberg,now with the International Crisis Group; and formerpresidential envoy for Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, nowpresident of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Interviewed by CBS journalist Martha Teichner, Mr Adamsreiterated that he regarded the partition of Ireland as"totally immoral". He continued: "The Good Friday Agreementis a bridge out of that."

Asked about possible Sinn Féin participation in policing,he said: "Sinn Féin wants policing." He added: "The PoliceService of Northern Ireland has, one could say, movedconsiderably along the Good Friday Agreement road to a newbeginning of policing."

There was a long-standing agreement with the Britishgovernment that when a number of outstanding issues wereaddressed, he would go to the leadership of Sinn Féin andask for a special ardfheis to ask the membership to "allowus to embrace what would be an acceptable policingservice".Asked why the IRA would not now disband, Mr Adamssaid an unnamed "very senior unionist" had told him that,"if the IRA paraded naked on the lawn of Stormont,destroyed all their weapons and committed mass hara-kiri",it would not be acceptable to the DUP.

He also pointed out that there were "very small, almostmicro-organisations on the fringes of republicanism" whichhad been responsible for the Omagh bombing, for example.

"How we have been able to counter those groups is, in therepublican heartlands, by debating in a very open way withrepublican people," he said.

Mr Adams continued: "What is required is that there isn't avacuum on the republican side."

He said it was not "within my ability to disband the IRA".

The Bush administration has refused permission for SinnFéin leaders to fundraise during their visits here,although the US-based Friends of Sinn Féin organisation isallowed to do so.

Asked how he felt about that, Mr Adams said he did notthink he had "any special entitlement" to fundraise in theUS:

"I do think it's a wee bit bizarre because I can fundraisein London" [laughter]. But he added that, "President Bushremains supportive of our process".

Ian Paisley would do a far better job as leader of NorthernIreland than any direct rule minister, Gerry Adams has toldan audience in New York.

Speaking yesterday before an audience at a leading Americanforeign policy think-tank, the Council on ForeignRelations, Adams said that Northern Ireland secretary,Peter Hain, and other British representatives did not havethe same understanding of Northern Ireland as Mr Paisley.

He said that the DUP leader was answerable to the people ofNorthern Ireland and not to the British parliament, as isthe case with Peter Hain and direct rule ministers.

He added that he didn't want to speak in a derogatory waybut said it was possible that Ian Paisley did not knowwhether he would go into government with Sinn Fein untilthe day before the November 24 deadline.

He drew laughter from the crowd when he said it was a "bitbizarre" that the Bush administration continues to ban himfrom fundraising in the US while he is free to fundraise inLondon.

He said he wanted to be diplomatic towards the Bushadministration on the fundraising issue but noted that"about half" of all Sinn Fein fundraising came indirectlyfrom the British and Irish governments throughcontributions made from the salaries of elected Sinn Feinrepresentatives.

He said the issue in the US was not about his rights butthe rights of Americans to hear who they wanted to hear andto donate money as they see fit.

At the conference Mr Adams said that unionist reasons forobjecting to a united Ireland were breaking down, such assouthern poverty or the influence of the Catholic Church.

He said that an increasing number of unionists werestarting to regard Ireland as a single unit, but he addedthat the wealth in the Republic needed to be distributedmuch more evenly.

Pressure on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to reveal more detailsabout money he received in 1993 is likely to increase witha report today that the cash came in the form of repayableloans which have not yet been fully returned.

The Irish Times today reports that the donors of the cashrefused Mr Ahern's offer to repay the outstanding sum. "Hewants to repay them but the boy's won't take it back at themoment," the newspaper quotes an unnamed source.

Opposition parties have called on the Taoiseach to explaindetails of the money he received from businessmen in 1993when he was minister for finance. But Mr Ahern has said hisreceipt of the money was a private matter and that he haddisclosed full information to the tribunal.

The payment was revealed in leaked documents from the MahonTribunal published by The Irish Times on Thursday. Mr Aherndescribed the details in the newspaper as "impeccable" butdenied that a figure of €50,000 - €100,000 was involved.

The tribunal has been told that the money was used to paylegal bills.

Mr Ahern refused to answer questions on the matteryesterday but gave a statement to reporters in which hesaid the revelation came as a "calculated leak ofconfidential material which was made available to the Mahontribunal".

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has saidit is his "strong conviction" that a pluralist society canbe best served by a plurality in schools, "in which thevariety of cultures and religious backgrounds arereflected, rather than through centralised uniformity".

He also said that "guaranteeing denominational religiousinstruction in a new form of State-sponsored primaryschool, not directly under religious patronage, would alsoallow the State to have an overseeing role in ensuring thequality of teaching of religion in order to ensure thatabuses do not emerge or any form of fundamentalism in anyreligious tradition gain ground".

The archbishop was delivering the "Opening of the AcademicYear Address" at the school of education studies in DublinCity University last night.

He noted that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Childrecently addressed the question of demographic change inIreland, where many immigrants are not Catholics while theethos of most schools is Catholic.

"We have Catholic schools in Dublin where over 50 per centare international children - in one school, the new entriesare 80 per cent this year. Many of these will not beCatholics," he said. He repeated his opinion that "thefostering of plurality of educational patronage issomething desirable and welcome in Ireland today and couldbring benefit to all".

He observed that "pluralism in religious belief has nowentered into a new chapter in its history in Ireland. Inthis new reality, the school must become a primary focusfor fostering a climate of knowledge about variousreligions and about dialogue and mutual respect amongdifferent religious traditions."

He continued that, "in this State, all religiousconfessions have the right to expect the respect and thesupport of the State in education within one's owndenomination and tradition. Is this something which dividesthe community? I do not believe so. Dialogue does not meanabandoning identity. Identity within a specific religioustradition can also be one open to and respectful of otherreligious traditions and of those who do not hold anyreligious faith."

He pointed out that "the Catholic schools in thearchdiocese of Dublin have been extraordinarily sensitiveto the fact of difference of ethnic, national and religiousbackground in the school community and they deserve creditfor what they have achieved".

The State, he said, "should be neutral in addressingreligious diversity in the sense that it does not favourany individual religious community, except where such acommunity may suffer disproportionate disadvantage becauseof size or other reason".

There was "no evidence" a totally "religiously neutralsecularist society" was the best space in which to fosterdialogue between religions, he said. On the other hand,there were forms of secular society "in which hostility toreligious values can indeed force religious groups into adangerously narrow perception of their culture and thussharpen religious differences".

Proceedings at the Ryder Cup competition were not the onlything put in jeopardy by Thursday night's storms. Up to50,000 homes were left without electricity due to downedpower lines during what the ESB said was the worst powerblackout in over 18 months.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 phone lines were also cut,according to Eircom, and some customers will be without anyservice until the middle of next week.

A number of houses had no electricity for almost 24 hoursas ESB crews struggled to restore power to counties alongthe east coast as well as to parts of Limerick, Tipperaryand Donegal.

Winds of up to 132km/h (82mph) felled trees and telephonepoles, while up to 82mm of rain caused flooding in someareas in a 7/8-hour hour period.

Some 400 Eircom field staff are scheduled to work over theweekend to try to restore phone lines, but a spokesman saidthat their work would take longer than ESB repairs becauseeach line had to be restored on an individual rather thanan area basis.

ESB repair crews were on alert from Thursday eveningfollowing a severe weather warning from Met Éireann andthey had reconnected most homes by lunchtime yesterday.

Blackouts were caused by timber falling on power lines, aspokesman for the company said.

More trees fell than would have been expected because theywere still in leaf, making them more susceptible to highwinds, according to Met Éireann.

The storm was the tail-end of Hurricane Gordon, which blewin from the middle of the Atlantic but had been downgradedto a tropical storm before reaching Ireland.

Weather conditions were likely to remain blustery andbreezy over the coming days but more extreme weather wasnot expected, said Met Éireann forecaster MichaelMcAuliffe.

Several marquees which had been erected for next week'sNational Ploughing Championships in Carlow were badlydamaged by the storms. However, the National PloughingAssociation said that arrangements were being made torepair or replace damaged structures, and the groundconditions for ploughing were excellent.